A nursing resume sample can be used to help you see how to highlight your skills and experience in the field of nursing. Nursing is a highly skilled job requiring both education and experience. Your resume must demonstrate that you are knowledgeable in the field, reliable, and dependable.
Elements of a Nursing Resume
Always highlight your strengths as a nurse in your resume. Depending on your situation, your strength may be in one of two areas: education or experience. For example, you may have received a Bachelor's of Science in Nursing, a Master's in Nursing, or even a certification in a specialty field. On the other hand, you may only have an Associate's Degree in nursing but have many years of experience.
When writing your resume, emphasize whatever it is that makes you qualified, whether it's education or experience, by highlighting that factor first. If you focus on your experience and not your education, you will want to list that on the top. You may even want to opt for a skills based resume, in which you break each of your previous jobs down into skills you have acquired.
Things to Include
Regardless of where your strengths lie, you will need to include information about both education and experience. When you talk about your education, list the school(s) you attended and the degrees you obtained. State's also require nurses to be certified, so make sure you mention that you are, in fact, a licensed RN. When you talk about your experience, be as specific as you can in detailing the tasks you have undertaken and the work you have done.Providing concrete details, such as your GPA in nursing school or your commendation for improving patient satisfaction, can also help an employer to see what you have to offer. These details can lend credibility to your list of skills and abilities.
You may also want to include a summary of all of these qualifications at the beginning of your resume so that your potential new employer can see at a glance just how much you have done. This may be especially important if you have a long resume with a lot of accomplishments. Entice the reader to peruse the whole document by starting with a great opening section which highlights the specific things on your resume that you are most proud of.
Nursing Resume Sample
The following nursing resume sample can provide you with a template to use to create your own perfect resume. Remember, though, your resume needs to be tailored towards your own strengths and weaknesses.
Sample Nurse's Resume
Evaluating the Resume
The nursing resume sample above clearly highlights this nurse's educational experience. The two degrees and certification are mentioned prominently. The nurse also explained her experience. Because she had only two jobs, although she worked at one for a long period of time, her experience is not emphasized as much as her educational background.
This nurse could have organized her resume differently, as a skill based resume, and broken down her jobs into each of the different skills she obtained. This would have highlighted her professional qualifications more, but would have placed less emphasis on her education since the resume would have been organized primarily around practical skills. Still, her education could have been listed and she could have described under each skill how her education helped her to obtain and perfect the ability.
Other Sample Resumes
If you are writing a nursing resume, make sure to determine the best resume format for you. This registered nurse resume example and nursing student resume example can provide you with a good starting point, as can examples at Best Sample Resumes. Ultimately, though, it is up to you to create a document that best highlights your skills.
